The Proud Rebel

(Michael Curtiz, US 1958, 103 min., 35mm)

Olivia de Havilland. Soon after the Civil War a Confederate veteran (Alan Ladd) travels the Yankee North in search of a doctor to cure his son’s muteness. The ten-year-old boy hasn’t uttered a single word since he saw his mother die in the war. Father and son find unexpected solace on the ranch of a stubborn and fiercely independent local woman (Olivia de Havilland), but soon become involved in her struggle to keep the ranch from falling into the hands of a greedy landowner. This unusually poignant western drama achieved immortality thanks to the assured direction by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) and by Olivia de Havilland’s perhaps most mature and elegantly restrained performance.